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John Boggs
Born: 1834 at Pennsylvania
Died: unknown
Buried: unknown
Married: Carrie S. Gardner.
Born: 1835 at Pennsylvania
Died: unknown – 1920 living in Orange, CA, a widow.
Buried: unknown
Children:
Elmer E., b. 1862 at Illinois, d. unknown, bur. unknown
Frank W., b. 1866 at Iowa, d. unknown, bur. unknown
George R., b. 5 APR 1869 at Boonesboro, Iowa, d. unknown, bur. unknown
Josepha E., b, 1872 at Nebraska, d. unknown, bur. unknown
History of the State of Oklahoma – 1908
GEORGE R. BOGGS was born April 5th, 1869, at Boonesboro, Iowa. His parents moved to Nebraska when he was an infant, the family locating on a homestead near Blair, in Washington county, in which George G. spent his early life and where he lived until 1893. His parents were John W. Boggs and Carrie S. Boggs, whose early lives were spent in Clairon county, Pennsylvania. His mother's maiden name was Carrie S. Gardner. John W. Boggs was a soldier of the Civil War, being a member of the Seventieth Illinois Infantry. In later years he served as sheriff of Washington county, Nebraska for four years and was postmaster at Blair during the administration of President Benjamin Harrison.
George G. Boggs was educated in the public schools of Blair, graduating from the high school in 1888. He then attended Doane College at Crete, Nebraska for two years and afterwards the law department of the Iowa State University and in 1892 was admitted to the bar. In 1893 Mr. Boggs was married to Carrie A. Lawson, of Blair. They have one son, Logan E. Boggs, who was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, in March 1897, to which place his parents had removed in 1895.
It was in Shawnee that the most thrilling and perhaps important events in the life of Mr. Boggs occurred. Mr. Boggs had been active in Republican politics and upon the election of the late President McKinley was appointed postmaster at Shawnee. After serving but a few months several valuable registered letters disappeared from his office and could not be found. Investigations were made but with no results and the matter appeared to be dropped. The community was shocked one day in the following spring by the announcement that their postmaster had been arrested, charged with the crime of embezzling registered letters. After several months Mr. Boggs was removed from office and tried in the Federal court at Tecumseh, Oklahoma, and convicted upon the testimony of handwriting experts, hand-writing being the point upon which the Government based the prosecution. Upon conviction Mr. Boggs was sentenced to serve four years in the Federal prison at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. The case was appealed to the higher courts and Mr. Boggs was again defeated. When all recourse to the courts had been exhausted and it looked as though there was no hope of Mr. Bogg's avoiding serving a term in prison, a young man who had been a clerk in the postoffice at Tecumseh, Oklahoma, at the time the letters were lost, went to the postoffice authorities and confessed that the letters had been sent to his office by mistake and that he had stolen them. Upon this confession Mr. Boggs was at once released from bonds and the charge against him dismissed. The long drawn out trials in court had impoverished Mr. Boggs but he had many good friends who were anxious to aid him and as a result he, in a very short time, organized the Asher State Bank, at Asher, Oklahoma, of which bank Mr. Boggs became president and which he made one of the most prosperous and solid in Oklahoma. This was in the fall of 1901. Mr. Boggs remained in Asher until the fall of 1906, when he removed to McLoud, Oklahoma, and became president of the Bank of Commerce there. Through all Mr. Boggs' fortunes, good and bad, he has had the support and advice of a true and good wife, who during the four years that he was in court supported the family by acting as bookkeeper in the Shawnee National Bank at Shawnee, Oklahoma, she having qualified herself for such work in early life. Through Mr. Boggs trials and delays in court he had many friends in position to aid him, especially among the officials of the courts, who believed him innocent, and he was never deprived of his liberty, even at times when there was no provision for giving bonds.
Mr. Boggs has two brothers and one sister. The two brothers are E. E. Boggs, a passenger conductor on the Rock Island Railroad, residing at Shawnee, and Frank W. Boggs, an attorney, who also resides at Shawnee. The sister, Miss Jo E. Boggs, resides with her parents at Longbeach, California. Mr. Boggs and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Boggs is a member of the Masonic fraternity and Mrs. Boggs of the Order of Eastern Star, and is the Worth Matron of the chapter.
Source: Ruth Moss, Washington County Genealogical Society
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